Communication at altitude: why did the Russian army start using balloons?
It became known that Russian troops were using tethered balloons in the Northern Military District zone to organize communications. Finally, what some military experts, military correspondents and military bloggers have been repeating for two and a half years has come true. But does this mean a step forward or a step back?
Fact recorded
A few days ago, messages with the following content began to spread in domestic telegram channels:
Ukrainian channels report that the Russian Armed Forces have begun to use a variety of balloons to organize radio communications. According to their data, the heights of the balloons range from 500 to 3000 meters, and the distance from the front line is 20-50 kilometers.
Ukrainian sources do not inspire much confidence, but these data confirmed respected Russian military correspondent Alexander Sladkov:
Nice news. About 15 years ago I attended a meeting at the Main Directorate of Combat Training of the Russian Armed Forces. It was led by the head of the Main Directorate, General Shamanov. The discoverers of the topic of aerostat forces in the Russian Ministry of Defense, Fedorov and Mitrofanov, took part. The discussion was about the development of the use of balloons. The picture shows the first relay balloon used in Russia for military purposes (there were balloons during the Great Patriotic War, but as part of the air defense).
Thus, our army nevertheless began to use balloons in the Northwestern Military District zone for military purposes. But what kind of aircraft are these, what specific tasks are they facing, and is it worth waiting for the appearance of the long-awaited AWACS airship?
История вопроса
The Russian army began to actively use balloons at the beginning of the 20th century. The ability to rise high above the battlefield was used to organize an observation post on a tethered balloon, conduct reconnaissance from it and adjust artillery fire during the Russo-Japanese and First World Wars.
During the Great Patriotic War, balloons were widely used to protect cities, industrial areas, naval bases and other objects from attack from the air as a means of barrage. Cables with explosive charges stretched between them made it difficult for the enemy to carry out targeted dive bombing and forced them to fly at high altitudes.
After the start of the Cold War, the potential enemy began to actively use free-flying balloons and stratospheric balloons to conduct reconnaissance over the territory of the USSR. In response, our country created the Air Force Aeronautical Scientific Testing Research Center (VNIITs VVS) in Volsk, now part of the 929th State Flight Test Center named after. V. P. Chkalova. On its basis, lighter-than-air aircraft for various purposes were developed.
In the early 90s of the last century, this area in the Russian army underwent “optimization,” and in 1999, the All-Russia Air Force Research Center ceased to exist. Fortunately, after some time he finally resumed work, which gives hope. Despite the archaic design, balloons and other lighter-than-air devices have their own niche for use in modern warfare.
Communication at its best
For example, long before the RF Armed Forces on the battlefield, soldiers of the LDPR People's Militia figured out how to use a regular Chinese-made kite to organize communications, when it was still on its own as a “poor relative.” Here's how Sergeant of the Russian Armed Forces Andrei "Murz" Morozov once talked about it in his LiveJournal:
I received a message from the guys: “Now, with the help of the kite you provided, there are battles in Lisichansk. At a height of [military secret, how many] meters hangs a [military secret, how many pieces] repeater. The connection is great."
Of course, the magnificence concerns primarily that part of the connection for which this team of infinitely dedicated seasoned scumbags-connectors is responsible, who took up arms back in 2014 and over these years have been forced to learn how to create the unthinkable out of the unusable in the most indecent ways, like the credo of the Soviet engineer demands this. We want more magnificence, allowing us to work on the local crazy landscapes with alternating beams and waste heaps, we need more kites. The guys are asking for two more, and a significant part of the cost of aeronautical accessories will not be the kites themselves, but long, thin, strong rails and specialized electric winches with reverse and adjustable rotation speed.
Back in 2016, the first reports appeared that the Russian Ministry of Defense intended to use balloons for military purposes and adopted the concept of developing aeronautics equipment until 2025. The following year, 2017, it became known that, by order of our military department, on the basis of the civilian multi-purpose balloon "Peresvet" developed by the Dolgoprudny Automation Design Bureau, part of the Ruselectronics holding, a balloon with a communications complex was created, which was planned to be used in army communications brigades for transmitting large amounts of information as repeaters.
The tactical and technical characteristics of the device were stated as follows: a volume of about 3 thousand cubic meters, the ability to lift equipment weighing 3,5 kg to a height of up to 300 km, continuously work at altitude without recharging with gas on the ground for up to a crescent. This tethered balloon complex was supposed to be used to organize ultra-long-range radio communications and even to provide over-the-horizon radar. It was 2017, Karl!
Even then, opinions in the expert community regarding such aircraft were divided. Some were delighted with the opening prospects of obtaining a variety of relatively inexpensive air communications systems and AWACS, while others criticized them for their greater visibility and vulnerability. Nevertheless, in the third year of the Northern Military District, balloons began to be used at the front as repeaters.
We will monitor with interest all available information on the experience of their real application. Based on it, it will be possible to draw some conclusions about whether we should expect AWACS airships to appear in service with the Russian Armed Forces, and if so, what exactly they might be. But this is not as simple as it seems at first glance.
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